A Short History of Quintin Kynaston School (Page 7)
Trail Blazing (1888)
No one had thought of taking children on a School Journey before. The Polytechnic Day School embarked on this pioneering venture in the summer of 1888. The 27-day trip to Switzerland cost each of the 50 boys £5 19s 0d inclusive (£5.95).
The "Swiss Continental Party" left Liverpool Street Station at 8pm on Monday 28th July led by Assistant Master David Woodhall with two colleagues, Mr Pritchard and Mr Saunders, an honorary physician Dr Jackson and Mr Schauermann (an instructor in wood carving at the school) as interpreter. About the only call on Dr Jackson's services was to extract a boy's tooth.
At Brussels the party received "quite an ovation" and were "heartily cheered from the hotel to the station". One boy reported that they "surprised the Belgians with our Polytechnic French". After touring the Battlefields of Waterloo, the party took the train to Lucerne where they sailed to Flüelen.
From Flüelen, they walked to Amsteg and on to Andermatt where 14 hours of incessant snow held them up for a day. Struggling through a metre of snow, they traversed the Furka Pass to reach the Rhone Glacier Hotel, a 10 hour trek. They crossed the Devil's Bridge on August 2nd just in time: five days later the bridge fell in! Then via Oberwald ("a very poor place") and Fiesch to the Jungfrau Hotel at the top of the Eggishorn ("a rather stiff climb"). They were delayed for half an hour while Mr Pritchard retrieved one boy's knapsack roll which had tumbled down the side of a ravine.
The walk continued via Brieg and St Nicholas. On the way, some of the boys helped themselves from trees laden with cherries. Two irate women shouting in several languages were only calmed by the masters and two francs compensation. At Zermatt, they hired a guide to climb the Hörnli.
Rejoining the railway at Visp, the party reached Antwerp where they caught the boat home. On their return to Portland Road Station (now Great Portland Street) early in the morning, the party marched to Regent Street where "a good English breakfast" was waiting for them in the Great Hall as was Quintin Hogg with a speech welcoming their safe return.
This was to be the first of many school journeys. And it was only one of the innovations at the school...
The journey was widely reported in the press with much public interest. It marked the effective beginning of Poly Tours which became a very successful travel agent. It merged with Sir John Lunn Travel in the 1970s to form Lunn Poly.
By 1893, Robert Mitchell, the master at the school who made the arrangements for the Swiss journey, had organised cruises to Norway, trips to Madeira, tours of the Ardennes and a visit to the Chicago World's Fair.
For many years masters at the school were employed by Poly Tours as holiday guides. In 1939 a Mr Lambert only just managed to get back to Calais in time for the evacuation - naturally travelling in a Polytechnic Special train.